Animal
by LizArianaJadeCat
Summary: When plans for a weekend vacation hit a dead end, a group of close-knit friends find themselves stranded in unfamiliar territory, pursued by a menacing, bloodthirsty predator. Holed up in an isolated cabin, tensions mount as long-buried secrets are revealed. As the body count rises, the group must put their differences aside and fight for survival.


_Hi everyone, so I know I've been away for a while, but I've decided to give one more story a go. It's based on Liz's new movie Animal which came out today. I highly suggest watching it first to avoid spoilers. I'm not sure how far I'll go with this fic, and I'm not sure how well it will be written as I haven't written anything in a long time._

_Things to point out: Cat is not in this fic, and Robbie is gay in this fic. Just some things to remember whilst reading._

_Enjoy._

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Tori Vega's tired eyes slowly blinked in an attempt to focus her vision. She moved her head slightly and winced at the twinge in her neck, silently regretting deciding that it would be a good idea to take a nap. She blinked again and looked up at her boyfriend, Andre Harris, whose shoulder she was resting her head on. His eyes were closed as he too napped. A quiet snore emerged from his throat, and a small smile appeared on Tori's lips as she fought a giggle. Her eyes moved from Andre's face to the window beside him and watched as dozens of trees passed them by. She smiled at the familiar scenery.

The gang used to come up here every summer whilst at Hollywood Arts. It was like a tradition for them. They would drive up here and just spend time together before going back to school once summer was over. The tradition had died down once finishing high school, but this year Tori wanted everyone to do it one last time, and they had all made it apart from Cat, who had to stay at home with her brother while her parents went away.

"It's been way too long," she spoke up, her voice being the first sound in a while to appear in the quiet van. The road trip games that had been fun to start with had died down, as had the chatter and eventually the radio as a few of them decided to sleep to pass the time.

"Yeah it has," Beck Oliver spoke from the driver's seat, his eyes focused on the narrow road in front of him. His arms were stiff from being in the same position for several hours, but he knew they were almost there. "Tori, you remember where that turn off is?" he asked, knowing there was a turn somewhere, but failing to remember exactly when it was.

"One or two miles past the Holland Creek sign?" Tori guessed from memory, her voice waking up Andre who stretched and cleared his throat.

Beck nodded and looked ahead, keeping an eye out for the sign. His eyes briefly flickered over to his girlfriend, Jade West, who was sleeping in the front passenger seat. A soft smile appeared on his face before he turned back to the road.

"Does he even know where he's going?" Andre asked quietly, his voice rough from sleep.

"No, but I do," Tori smiled, causing Andre to chuckle softly and stroke her arm, turning his head to look out the window at the unfamiliar scenery.

The truck continued along the narrow road, passing the Holland Creek sign and shortly after, making the turn off onto another narrow road surrounded by trees. It all looked the same.

Robbie Shapiro looked around at his friends, most of whom were sleeping or at least had their eyes closed. His iPod blasted in his ears as it had done for the past several hours, by now he'd heard every song twice and he was getting bored.

"Is this it?!" he shouted over the music in his ears, causing everyone else in the car to jump in fright.

"Holy shit, Robbie," Jade complained, being rudely awoken from her nap. She glared at him in the rearview mirror.

Beck chuckled, "Almost, man. This is the road we-"

"Huh?!" Robbie yelled over his music.

"Almost!" Jade yelled back.

Robbie pulled the earbud out of his right ear, "Sorry, you were saying?"

"Almost, oh my God it's like talking to a deaf person," Jade told him, rolling her eyes before resting her head back in her seat, closing her eyes.

"We're close, Rob," Beck assured his friend.

"Y'know, it's attitudes like that, that make me wear these," Robbie told Jade, jokingly sticking out his tongue, making Jade roll her eyes, before replacing his earbud.

Jade revelled in the silence that fell in the truck once again, wondering if she had time to nap again before they arrived. Unfortunately, Robbie ruled out that option by yelling again.

"This is really beautiful!" he yelled, looking out at the trees that towered over the road and carried on for miles.

"Oh my God," Jade mumbled.

"Alright," Beck chuckled, shaking his head.

"GORGEOUS!"

"Stop!" Jade cried.

The truck continued along the narrow road, passing yet more trees and crossing a small bridge over a lake. As they crossed the bridge, Beck's eyes narrowed to focus on a sign in the distance.

"Are you serious?" he sighed as he read what was written on the sign, slowing the car to stop in front of it.

"What is it?" Robbie asked, removing an earbud.

"It's a road block," Beck replied, looking at the sign which read 'Road Closed'. He sighed and turned off the car, "Shit," he breathed, undoing his seatbelt and opening the door to jump out and walk over to the sign. Jade, Robbie, Tori and Andre followed and climbed out the truck. Robbie parked himself on the hood of the truck, stretching his legs out in front of him.

"Why's it closed?" Jade asked as they walked over to the road block. She looked around and found a notice stapled to a nearby tree. Her eyes ran over the piece of paper, "What's 'forest regeneration'?" she asked, reading from the notice.

Beck shook his head, "It's bullshit, it's a lie to keep people quiet while they chop it all down," he sighed, reading over the notice and looking up at the trees.

"It isn't nice to fool mother nature," Robbie spoke from his position on the hood of the truck, shaking his head.

"No it is not," Beck agreed, "Chopping down trees that are a hundred years old."

Jade smirked, "Wow, someone's a little pissed." She grabbed Beck's arm and pulled him closer to her, making him smile and place his hands on her hips.

"Sorry," he whispered, gazing down at her.

"No, it's okay. That's why we came, to enjoy what's here before it's gone," she smiled, patting her hands against his chest.

Beck smiled and pressed his lips to hers, making her smile into the kiss and place her hands on his shoulders to steady herself.

"Guys, guys, guys, don't bring any of that on the trail," Robbie grimaced as he watched them from the truck.

"Oh it's coming," Beck smiled, linking his fingers with Jade's and walking back to the truck.

"Shut up, Robbie," Jade giggled.

"You need to get off my truck," Beck told Robbie, only now noticing him on the hood.

"Can we get around this thing?" Andre spoke up, looking back at the road block as he and Tori walked to the back of the truck.

"Yeah just knock it down," Robbie said as he slid off the hood of the truck.

Andre and Tori stood at the back of the truck as Andre opened the boot to grab their backpacks from it.

"So is this the place you were telling me about?" he asked as he propped open the boot. Andre had never been out there with them before, he'd always been invited but he had to look after his grandma most times.

"Almost," Tori told him, "A little further down but might as well be the same thing. It's all the same forest," she shrugged. "We used to camp here every summer. It's like our one family tradition," she smiled, thinking of her friends as her family.

Beck appeared beside them, slapping a hand down on Andre's shoulder, "Alright, what do we think? Close enough?" he asked Tori.

She nodded, "Yeah," she answered, looking around and trying to think how far it would be to walk.

"You sure?" Beck checked.

"Yeah, yeah," she reassured him and herself.

"Alright, lets suit up," Beck said, grabbing his backpack from the trunk of the car and throwing it on his back.

Each of them grabbed their backpacks and slung them over their shoulders. Andre struggled to fix the straps on his, wanting to make sure they were comfortable. Tori noticed and laughed softly before grabbing the straps and fixing them for him. Andre chuckled and rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"This ain't right, I'm supposed to be fixing your backpack," he chuckled.

Tori raised an eyebrow, "Oh, is it intimidating that your girlfriend is used to the outdoors?" she smirked.

"No, no, I'm just saying... At least I know you'll be alright if I wasn't here," he smiled, stroking her hair out of her eyes.

Tori smiled softly, "Yeah I'd be okay."

Andre gasped as his backpack was yanked backwards. He looked behind him and found Beck shoving things into his open backpack, "How much shit are you putting in there?" he checked, feeling quite a few things being shoved into his backpack.

"Just enough, you'll thank me later," Beck assured him, zipping up the backpack and slapping his friend's shoulder.

Andre turned around, "What about the rest of the stuff? Is it gonna be safe here?" he asked, looking at the truck beside them and noticing there was still quite a few things in the trunk of the car.

Beck nodded, "Yeah, better than losing it in the woods, right?" he reasoned, making Andre nod in agreement. Beck grabbed the car keys from his pocket and tucked them inside the gas flap, making sure they were safely stored inside before closing the flap. He walked around to the other side of the truck and found Robbie dancing to a song on his iPod while Jade watched on amusedly from inside the truck, "Hey, you're not bringing that," he told Robbie, causing him to frown. "Put it in the car, this is our date with mother nature," Beck told him, fighting a smile.

"It's 'mood music'," Robbie pouted, "You usually like it," he sighed, stuffing the device in his pocket.

Tori walked up to the truck's front passenger window and found Jade fixing her hair in the mirror. She rolled her eyes and smiled, "You know it's a hike, right?" she checked as Jade applied lip gloss.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? We have to look good," Jade defended herself.

"You look fine, lets go," Tori assured her, shaking her head.

"Tori, let me explain something to you. You are a natural beauty, okay? It's a gift. Girls like me, we've gotta take what we've got and work it. Besides, I've got a reputation to uphold," she explained, fixing her hair.

Tori rolled her eyes, "It's just us," she told her, fighting back a smile at the thought that Jade considered her to be a 'natural beauty'.

Jade sighed, "Oh Tori, you know better than that. It's never just us," she explained, holding up her phone, making Tori roll her eyes once more before walking over to the others. Jade fixed her hair one last time before leaving the car and joining her friends.

"Okay get together," Robbie told them as he organised a photo of everyone to post on The Slap. Jade, Beck, Tori and Andre and shuffled closer together to fit in the frame. "Okay, you ready?" Robbie checked, "One, two, everyone say 'fifth wheel'!"

"Fifth wheel," they laughed as Robbie snapped the photo.

"You're so cute when you're pathetic," Jade joked, cupping his face as she walked past him.

"You're not cute in that photo," Robbie retorted quietly as she walked away. He was about to tuck his phone away in his pocket but decided to take one quick photo of himself. He snapped one and his eyes widened, "Oh my God, is that what my hair looks like?" he muttered, zooming in on the photo.

He quickly caught up with his friends as they began walking into the forest, leaving the truck sitting on the road.

As they walked, Tori looked up at Andre who was clearly out of his comfort zone having never been there before. She let out a quiet giggle at his wide eyes as he looked around.

"What? Am I that obvious?" he chuckled, shaking his head.

Tori smiled and grabbed his hand, "Relax, these woods won't even be here in the next few years," she told him.

He smirked, "I will if you give me a kiss..."

Tori giggled and leaned up to peck him on the cheek as they continued walking. Soon, they turned off the dirt path and began weaving their ways through the masses of trees, leading them deeper and deeper into the forest.

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_Thoughts? Let me know x_


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